Analysis:By keeping Sean O'Brien, Rob Kearney and Cian Healy on a leash, Declan Kidney always gave himself elbow room to refresh the Irish XV for the potential Group C decider against Australia in Eden Park on Saturday (kick-off 9.30am Irish time).
Sure enough, all three return to the starting line-up, as does Eoin Reddan, as the Irish head coach finally reverts to the most tried and tested halfback partnership available. Indeed, save for Kearney’s inclusion ahead of Andrew Trimble again, with Keith Earls on the left wing instead of full-back, it is the same backline which produced comfortably Ireland’s most potent backline performance of the last year or more in that 24-8 win over England. Furthermore, save for Stephen Ferris being back in the fold and David Wallace cruelly missing out, it is the same pack which produced such intensity that day.
The recalled quartet should all bring an urgency and, overall, improve things. “That’s what tournament football is all about, and the freshness that that brings into the team as well too. If you play the same team week-in, week-out, it becomes difficult for everybody. The lads have another week under their belt and they’re raring to go.”
Ireland haven’t picked the same halfback pairing for consecutive games since the Welsh and Scottish games last season, and of their five games to date this season, Reddan and Sexton have only played 14 minutes together at half-back. Kidney’s reasoning here is that, a bit like elsewhere, he was covering all bases up until now. “This was one that was always easily available.
“They just click in with each other naturally enough and you just want to make sure you get all your combinations up and going as well too,” said Kidney, who denied there was any uncertainty in his halfback combination.
The changes mean that Leinster’s contingent increases from six to nine, with a Leinster back-line en bloc apart from Tommy Bowe and Earls on the wings. It’s not ideal, mind, nor how the management would have wanted it, that Kearney hasn’t played in five weeks since injuring his groin in his second comeback match in Bordeaux, and conditions last Sunday were hardly conducive to bringing the best out of Geordan Murphy’s attacking game.
“You go into it with a plan and we took the five matches in August to make sure everybody got fit as best we could, but you can’t dictate around who’s going to pick up the bangs and knocks,” said Kidney. “I could have pushed him (Kearney) to play last week, but some guys have a capacity to come in and play well, and he’s shown that, as he did against Scotland. Now his leg is not an issue.”
All in all, it’s a strong-looking team, the strongest possible allowing for the absence of Wallace, and even then O’Brien is the most natural, like-for-like replacement, who will also give Ireland a badly needed injection of ball carrying.
True, Ireland don’t have a counterfoil to the breakdown specialist David Pocock, and O’Brien has been more effective at six or eight than at seven.
But playing Wallace at seven never prevented Munster or Ireland from getting the ball into his hands, and Jamie Heaslip’s breakdown work is excellent.
Now primed by another start after his bang against England, we know that Heaslip is a big game player.
As with Australia drawing on their core of Queensland Reds Super 15 winners, so Ireland are drawing on their reigning Heineken Cup champions.
This is a game that Ireland have known about since the groups were first drawn back in December 2008, and thus a game that the management have been planning for from a long time ago.
“It’s what you get into it for,” said Kidney enthusiastically. “Five times out of seven that we’ve played them in the World Cup,” he added, in reference to the four previous World Cup defeats to the Wallabies. It’s going to require a big performance but Kidney believes it’s there, provided Ireland don’t force it too much.
“They’re the team in the group that are seeded above us. This is the one you look forward to. This is the one that you’ve no problem getting yourself ready for. You have to be sure that you don’t force it as well then too. You have to back yourself and back your belief, and just do what you do, knowing that that will be good enough.”
Ireland
(v Australia, Auckland, Saturday, 9.30am)
15 Rob Kearney (Leinster)
14 Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 Brian O’Driscoll (Leinster, c)
12 Gordon D’Arcy (Leinster)
11 Keith Earls (Munster)
10 Jonathan Sexton (Leinster)
9 Eoin Reddan (Leinster)
1 Cian Healy (Leinster)
2 Rory Best (Ulster)
3 Mike Ross (Leinster)
4 Donncha O’Callaghan (Munster)
5 Paul O’Connell (Munster)
6 Stephen Ferris (Ulster)
7 Sean O’Brien (Leinster)
8 Jamie Heaslip (Leinster)
Replacements:Jerry Flannery (Munster), Tom Court (Ulster), Donnacha Ryan (Munster), Denis Leamy (Munster), Conor Murray (Munster), Ronan O'Gara (Munster), Andrew Trimble (Ulster).
